“We’ve got this far through hard and honest work” – Niko Kovac’s key quotes ahead of Hoffenheim trip

Head coach Niko Kovac on…

…the personnel situation: “Our international players have returned to Frankfurt in good health. Jonathan de Guzman has unfortunately joined the list of long-term absentees. We’ll also be without Marco Russ, who will miss the game with Achilles tendon problems.”

…Saturday’s encounter with Hoffenheim: “Our games against Hoffenheim have always been tight affairs during my time as head coach. Both teams are usually well organised and concede very few chances as a result. I’m interested to see how my players deal with the challenge on Saturday. We’re well prepared and want to win. It would also be nice to score a goal against them - we haven’t managed to find the net against Hoffenheim since I’ve been here.”

… Eintracht’s points tally so far: “I feel we deserve our current position in the standings with a third of the season gone. We’ve got this far through hard and honest work, but things can change very quickly. Whether we manage to stay in the top half of the table depends on us and on other teams too, of course. My players know our main objective is to stay as far ahead as possible of the teams at the bottom. If we fail to do that, we won’t be thinking about anything else.”

… the Eagles’ tough run of games in the coming weeks: “The next phase of our campaign starts in Hoffenheim. We have a lot of really difficult games on the horizon - several of our upcoming opponents are currently in the top six. That’s why tomorrow’s game is particularly important for us.”